Σελίδες

Κυριακή, 30 Νοεμβρίου 2008

Iran proposes consortium for developing nuclear plants in GulfTEHRAN, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Sunday proposed to form a consortium with neighboring countries in the Gulf region for developing nuclear power plants. Reza Aqazadeh, head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization, made the proposal in his address to the opening session of the First International Seminar on Nuclear Power Plants, Environment and Sustainable Development. Aqazadeh encouraged participants of the two-day seminar to form a consortium to construct and develop light water nuclear power plantsin the region, the official IRNA news agency reported. "Iran is ready to provide very soon a comprehensive plan for the proposal if it were approved in generalities by the Persian Gulf littoral states," he was quoted as saying. The seminar opened in Tehran Sunday morning in the presence of Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and representative of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Christer Viktorsson. The participants in the seminar are to discuss the need for nuclear energy as a replacement, setting up nuclear power plants as a national strategy, nuclear power plants and global energy market, development of nuclear energy and sustainable development and nuclear energy. Global warming and the role of international bodies to protect environment and safety in developing nuclear power plants are among other subjects for discussion, the IRNA said.

Hurriyet- Iran pounds PKK and PEJAK hideouts in northern IraqThe Iranian army's artillery pounded terrorist PKK organization and PEJAK's, PKK's Iranian equivalent in Iran, hideouts at the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, the Anatolian Agency reported on Sunday. Iranian artillery has been heavily pounding the Pisder region that stands between Iranian- Iraqi border since late Nov. 29, Jabbar Yawar, an official of regional administration in northern Iraq told Anatolian Agency. Residents in the region fled to safer regions following the bombardment, the A.A. also said.Turkey, provided with intelligence by the United States, raids on the PKK both inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, including the EU and the United States.

A leading Russian political analyst has saidthe economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts. Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily Izvestia published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse." The paper said Panarin's dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year's events. When asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said: "It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving. Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world's financial regulator." When asked who would replace the U.S. in regulating world markets, he said: "Two countries could assume this role: China, with its vast reserves, and Russia, which could play the role of a regulator in Eurasia." Asked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: "A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles." He also cited the "vulnerable political setup", "lack of unified national laws", and "divisions among the elite, which have become clear in these crisis conditions." He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong. He even suggested that "we could claim Alaska - it was only granted on lease, after all." On the fate of the U.S. dollar, he said: "In 2006 a secret agreement was reached between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. on a common Amero currency as a new monetary unit. This could signal preparations to replace the dollar. The one-hundred dollar bills that have flooded the world could be simply frozen. Under the pretext, let's say, that terrorists are forging them and they need to be checked." When asked how Russia should react to his vision of the future, Panarin said: "Develop the ruble as a regional currency. Create a fully functioning oil exchange, trading in rubles... We must break the strings tying us to the financial Titanic, which in my view will soon sink."Panarin, 60, is a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has authored several books on information warfare

Σάββατο, 29 Νοεμβρίου 2008

MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) - Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov criticized the Russian leadership's domestic policies on Saturday and said communism was the only remedy for the current financial crisis. Speaking at a Communist Party congress, Zyuganov said the Kremlin has been promising too much, while doing too little. "The ruling grouping has not achieved any noticeable success, nor does it have any action plan. It has been guided by the sole goal - to stay in power at any cost," Zyuganov said. Zyuganov said the global credit crisis has shown that the collapse of capitalism is inevitable. "It is increasingly obvious that socialism is not a product of propaganda, but a natural and unavoidable phase of development. The collapse of the speculative financial market is a turning point," he said. Zyuganov regretted Russia's "tragic breakup" with former Soviet republics and called for restoring the Soviet Union, which he said is quite possible. The renationalization of the country's mining, energy and other "strategic" sectors is "the key task," he said. A program of reviving Russia that the party leaders set out at the congress also proposed reinstating direct elections of governors as a more democratic method of selecting regional leaders - abolished by then president Vladimir Putin - cutting bureaucracy, and lifting a moratorium on the death penalty for severe crimes. The leading opposition force in the country, which resisted Putin's return as premier and a recent move to extend the presidential term from four to six years, the communists welcome an alliance with other opposition groups, Zyuganov said.

Riots 'kill hundreds in Nigeria'In 2001, more than 1,000 people died in religious clashes in JosHundreds of people are reported to have been killed during religious clashes in the central Nigerian town of Jos. A Muslim charity says it collected more than 300 bodies, and fatalities are also expected from other ethnic groups, mainly Christians. There is no official confirmation yet, and figures are notoriously unreliable in Nigeria, says the BBC's Alex Last. Clashes broke out after a disputed local election on Friday which has divided the town on social fault lines. Police have imposed a 24-hour curfew and the army is patrolling the streets of the town of Jos, capital of Plateau State. They have been given orders to shoot on sight in an effort to quell the bloodshed, some of the most serious in Nigeria in recent years. The Nigerian Red Cross says at least 10,000 people have fled their homes.Contested electionThe mostly Christian-backed governing party in Plateau state, the People's Democratic Party, was declared to have won the state elections. The result was contested by the opposition All Nigeria People's Party, which has support from Muslims. Violence started on Thursday night with singing and burning of tyres on the roads by groups of youths over reports of election rigging. Bodies from the Muslim Hausa community were brought into the mosque compound from the streets where they had been killed. The local imam told our correspondent that their number is "in the hundreds". The Christian casualties are usually taken to the hospital morgues, but no clear figure has emerged for the number of their fatalities. Despite the overnight curfew, groups in some areas took to the streets again, as soon as patrols had passed by.Troubled pastIn 2001, more than 1,000 people died in religious clashes in the city. And in 2004, a state of emergency was declared in Plateau State after more than 200 Muslims were killed in the town of Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia. Correspondents say communal violence in Nigeria is complex, but it often boils down to competition for resources such as land between those that see themselves as indigenous versus the more recent settlers. In Plateau State, Christians are regarded as being indigenous and Hausa-speaking Muslims the settlers.-----------------------------------------------------

Hundreds of people have been killed in the central Nigerian city of Jos after Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election, witnesses say.Umaru Yar Adua, the Nigerian president, on Saturday ordered the deployment of troops on the streets to contain the violence.Stella Din, a journalist based in the Nigerian capital of Lagos, told Al Jazeera: "Figures range from 20 to 200 for the number of people who have died, but no one knows exactly how many people have been killed."Sheikh Khalid Abubakar, the imam at the city's main mosque, however, said more than 300 dead bodies were brought to the mosque.Election disputeThe riots were sparked after electoral workers failed to publicly post results of local elections held on Thursday.Homes, churches and mosques were burnt down in the rioting fuelled by rumours that the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost the elections to the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). The ANPP is considered a predominantly Muslim party, while the PDP is mainly Christian. The violence is the worst since the May 2007 inauguration of Nigeria’s president, who came to power in a vote that international observers dismissed as not credible.Few Nigerian elections have been deemed free and fair since independence from Britain in 1960, and military takeovers have periodically interrupted civilian rule. Jos, the administrative capital of Plateau state, had also been the scene of a week of violence between Christians and Muslims in September 2001, which also left hundreds dead.

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JOS, Nigeria: Mobs burned homes, churches and mosques Saturday in a second day of riots, as the death toll rose to more than 300 in the worst sectarian violence in Africa's most populous nation in years.Sheikh Khalid Abubakar, the imam at the city's main mosque, said more than 300 dead bodies were brought there on Saturday alone and 183 could be seen laying near the building waiting to be interred.Those killed in the Christian community would not likely be taken to the city mosque, raising the possibility that the total death toll could be much higher. The city morgue wasn't immediately accessible Saturday.Police spokesman Bala Kassim said there were "many dead," but couldn't cite a firm number.The hostilities mark the worst clashes in the restive West African nation since 2004, when as many as 700 people died in Plateau State during Christian-Muslim clashes.Jos, the capital of Plateau State, has a long history of community violence that has made it difficult to organize voting. Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people.The city is situated in Nigeria's "middle belt," where members of hundreds of ethnic groups commingle in a band of fertile and hotly contested land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.Authorities imposed an around-the-clock curfew in the hardest-hit areas of the central Nigerian city, where traditionally pastoralist Hausa Muslims live in tense, close quarters with Christians from other ethnic groups.The fighting began as clashes between supporters of the region's two main political parties following the first local election in the town of Jos in more than a decade. But the violence expanded along ethnic and religious fault lines, with Hausas and members of Christian ethnic groups doing battle.Angry mobs gathered Thursday in Jos after electoral workers failed to publicly post results in ballot collation centers, prompting many onlookers to assume the vote was the latest in a long line of fraudulent Nigerian elections.Riots flared Friday morning and at least 15 people were killed. Local ethnic and religious leaders made radio appeals for calm on Saturday, and streets were mostly empty by early afternoon. Troops were given orders to shoot rioters on sight.The violence is the worst since the May 2007 inauguration of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who came to power in a vote that international observers dismissed as not credible.Few Nigerian elections have been deemed free and fair since independence from Britain in 1960, and military takeovers have periodically interrupted civilian rule.More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since civilian leaders took over from a former military junta in 1999. Political strife over local issues is common in Nigeria, where government offices control massive budgets stemming from the country's oil industry.

India blames Pakistanfor Mumbai bloodshed Authorities in India are pointing the finger at Pakistan as the likely source of the coordinated terror attack on Mumbai that lasted three days and left at least 195 people dead. Indian police say the only surviving militant had a Pakistani passport and told officers he had been trained in the Islamic republic. On Saturday, police succeeded in recapturing the besieged Taj Mahal Palace hotel using a series of controlled explosions.A search is now under way for anyone who may still be trapped inside.At least 195 people, including some westerners, died during the assault. But police fear the death toll could rise. Up to 300 have been injured, the vast majority of them Indian citizens.Associated Press of Pakistan reports that the country’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said that Islamabad wants friendly relations with its neighbours. “We want peace, co-operation and friendship with our neighbours as it is in the best interest of the country,” he said talking to a private TV channel. “During a meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister I said that Pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist act in Mumbai, has sympathy with the Indian government and is ready to extend its co-operation to probe the incident,” Mahmood Qureshi is quoted as saying. He said he told the Indian Foreign Minister that Pakistan itself is the victim of terrorism and both the countries can jointly defeat the menace of terrorism. He said the blame game will not help to resolve the problem of terrorism, and Pakistan and India should work together. President Asif Ali Zardari offered full support to the Indian government in investigating the terrorist act in the Indian business capital.On Friday masked Indian commandos launched a sustained operation at a Jewish centre in Mumbai where Muslim militants were holed up with hostages. Gunshots and explosions were heard as government forces cleared the building floor by floor. Elsewhere in the city elite troops have cleared Muslim attackers from two luxury hotels. They had barricaded themselves inside with hostages for more than a day after a series of attacks had paralysed India’s financial capital. Eyewitness accounts say the terrorists were looking for UK and U.S. passport holders. Russian media reports on Friday said all Russian citizens were released unharmed.Meanwhile, Russia's counter terrorism presidential envoy, Anatoly Safonov, says the terrorists in Mumbai applied the same tactics used by Chechen militants, who raided Russian towns in the North Caucasus in the 1990s.Terrorism or fight for freedom: where’s the line?What happened in Mumbai has once again raised the issue of global terrorism and how to fight it. For one, attacks continue to be a regular occurrence in Israel and the Palestinian autonomy.And it doesn't matter whether you call people terrorists or freedom fighters - at the end of the day it's always a sad story from all sides.The last time that the Jayyozi family in the Palestinian city of Tulkaram were all together was ten years ago.One son is now studying in Russia; another is behind bars serving life for killing six Israelis; the last one, Mohammed, has been just released from prison."Of course I’m very sad my brother is still in prison and I think about it all the time. But we did what was necessary to release Palestine from Israeli occupation," released Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Jayyozi said. And the Jayyozi family story is quite ordinary in Palestine."You come to this moment when you see your friends dying, wounded, blown up after Israeli air strikes. You see all this blood on the streets and at that moment you decide you have to do something," Mohammed says.But while Mohammed is a hero in the city of Tulkaram, across the border in Israel’s capital Tel Aviv he is the opposite. Even those Israelis sympathetic to the Palestinian struggle for freedom don't support his methods.Psychologist Diana Sigal-Hodorkovsky says: "in western culture when a person kills himself or murders other people, he's considered sick. But in Islam, to sacrifice oneself for one’s religion or nation is very, very honourable. Also, when a child grows up in a society where he sees only war and bloodshed, he comes to think this is normal," she said. This is why Mohammed's mother Nadia, is resigned to her fate."You cannot call it a life that I have. Day after day, holiday after holiday, I was alone and I didn't know where my children were. Palestinian mothers today live a new history. We live with our sons in prison. This is our reality," Nadia says.

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Mumbai a terror zone, and India bitterly points its finger at Pakistan. The unloved neighbor needs all the help the West can offer. Pakistan is nearly a failed state -- and a US invasion under President Obama can't be ruled out.It is still not clear who exactly carried out the terror attacks in Mumbai this week. But the actions speak for themselves. The murderers expressly went after Britons, Americans and Jews. In the world's largest democracy, attacks were carried out by a determined minority against the will of an overwhelming majority. The crimes bear the clear and bloody fingerprints of militant, political Islamism. The uncomfortable resonance left behind by the series of attacks is that the criminals were almost omnipotent: They could strike where, when and -- almost -- whomever they wanted. The terror didn't just claim its victims in one awful moment; it spread out and lasted for days. There was a similar feeling during the terror attacks on the living quarters of Westerners in Saudi Arabia in 2004 as well as the battle at Pakistan's Red Mosque, in the center of Islamabad. But this time the terror overtook an entire cityThe attacks struck the heart of an Indian civil society that has always functioned fairly well, despite recurring conflicts between the country's Hindu majority and Muslim minority. The terror struck a country that is closely allied, politically and economically, with the West. The terrorists' mission can be neatly summarized: political, economic and cultural destabilization of the whole subcontinent.The attacks were an attempt to spread religious war from the whole of Afghanistan and regions of Pakistan to their southern neighbor, India. It's obvious the terrorists follow the ideology of al-Qaida, though it's unclear whether the head of that organization gave orders for this mission. Perhaps we'll never know -- it wouldn't be the first time. But we can assume the murderers from Mumbai see themselves as part of an international movement in which Zawahiri and bin Laden hold high ranks.Now the population of India, shocked to the core by the brutality, is pointing unmistakably in one direction: to the northwest. "Elements with links to Pakistan" are responsible for the massacre, says India's foreign minister. Several terrorists have Pakistani backgrounds, say Indian officials, though the government has so far presented no firm evidence. But a lack of evidence does not mean Pakistan had nothing to do with the well-planned attacks.On the contrary: The Indian embassy in Kabul was made the target of a bloody attack earlier this summer. Western intelligence services have traced the attackers in that case back to the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI. Pakistani groups in the past have often been responsible for terror attacks in India. Of course, there are also "homegrown" jihadists in India as well. But in Pakistan, above all in its tribal area near the border with Afghanistan, these fighters have the territory they need to plan the spread of their war beyond its local confines. There have been three major wars between the two countries since 1947, when Britain withdrew and the protectorate was divided into Pakistan and India. There have also been a number of smaller armed conflicts, most recently in 1999. Even when the fighting ceases, a deep mistrust abides. The political mottos in this conflict might be summed up as, "My enemy's enemy is my friend," and "What hurts my neigbor is good for me." These maxims, born from deep enmity, were familiar in Europe in the 19th century, when every nation thought it was better than its neighbor. But on the Indian subcontinent 21st century Islamist terrorism has to be added as a decisive political factor to these kinds of parochial ideas.Brainwashing for the Holy WarNevertheless, Pakistan's foreign minister offered India his help on Friday. He pledged to send the head of the ISI to share information with his Indian counterparts. These are praiseworthy developments, but it will take more than words to prevent attacks like those in Mumbai from happening again. Even if the governments in New Delhi and Islamabad have cautiously begun to discuss their core differences, like the status of Kashmir, and even if telegrams of sympathy are sent from Islamabad to Mumbai and New Delhi, the benefits will be limited. And if the murky political and military situation in Pakistan is not clarified and solved, then the war on the terror between Kabul, Karachi and Mumbai will almost certainly be lost.

Nato has confirmed it will not yet offer membership to Georgia or Ukraineafter the 26-member alliance was split amid strong objections from Russia. Moscow said Nato's promise at a summit in Romania that the nations would join one day was a "huge strategic mistake". Macedonia vowed to leave the summit after it was denied entry. Albania and Croatia were given the green light. Nato members were set to endorse US plans for anti-missile defences in Europe, which Russia has opposed. US and Czech officials have agreed to base a missile defence radar on Czech soil. Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference that Georgia and Ukraine would become members eventually. Germany and France had been opposed to putting the two nations on the path to membership, amid concerns voiced by Russia over Nato's eastward expansion. "Georgia's and Ukraine's membership in the alliance is a huge strategic mistake which would have most serious consequences for pan-European security," Interfax news agency quoted Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying on the sidelines of the summit. Georgian diplomats said they were "not happy" with the delay but welcomed the promise of eventual membership. Macedonian officials said their rejection was a "huge disappointment" that would undermine stability in the Balkans, and said they would leave the three-day summit early.Macedonia's membership was strongly opposed by Greece, which has a northern province that is also called Macedonia.

Somali pirates seize another tankerSomali pirates have seized another ship in the Gulf of Aden, despite increased foreign presence in the region.Five pirates on fishing boats attacked a Liberia-flagged Biscaglia tanker and boarded the vessel with a ladder, Jean-Marc Le Quilliec, commander of a nearby French frigate, said on Friday.Three crew members were fished out of the water by a German navy helicopter after they jumped overboard to escape the pirates.The French frigate was escorting another tanker and had attracted at least 17 ships in its wake seeking protection but the Liberian tanker had stayed on its course. The pirates freed a Greek freighter on Friday, leaving 17 ships still in their hands despite foreign warships stepping up their efforts to fight the piracy. The pirates are still holding the giant Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star which they hijacked on November 15. A ransom of $25 million has been demanded by Sunday to free the vessel.Undeterred by international actions since the super-tanker was captured, the pirates have continued to roam Somalia's waters and beyond, seizing half a dozen ships over the past two weeks.With European, US and other navy ships rushing to the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden, international shipping companies are hoping safety can be guaranteed on the shortest route between Asia and Europe.A detour via the Cape of Good Hope adds at least three weeks and significant extra costs for the shipping industry.

"The Bulavawas launched from a submerged position in the WhiteSea toward a target located at the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula," the source said. He later said it had successfully engaged its designated target on the Kamchatka Peninsula about 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) east of Moscow. The previous test of the Bulava missile was carried out on September 18. Russia is planning to adopt new Bulava missiles for service with the Navy and commission the first Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine in 2009. The Bulava (SS-NX-30), developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, is designed for deployment on Borey-class Project 955 nuclear-powered submarines. The first submarine in the series, the Yury Dolgoruky, was built at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern Arkhangelsk Region and is currently undergoing sea trials. The submarine has a length of 170 meters (580 feet), a body diameter of around 13 meters (42 feet), and a submerged speed of about 29 knots. It will be equipped with 16 Bulava ballistic missiles, each carrying up to 10 nuclear warheads and having a range of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).

Polish Special Services Found Unwanted Facts - http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=1081401According to them, the Georgian party allowed President Lech Kaczyński to be shot at. Mikhail Saakashvili accused of provocation. A big scandal concerning the shelling of the Georgian and Polish presidential escorts on the South Ossetian border has been stirred up. Yesterday influential Polish newspaper Dziennik quoted extracts from a report on investigation carried out in connection with the incident by two Polish special services — the Interior Security Agency (ABW) and the Government Protection Bureau (BOR). The special services came to a conclusion that the incident was a provocation, initiated by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Polish special services’ five-page report reads that the Sunday shooting was most likely initiated by Georgians. This conclusion was made basing on a number of facts. When the first burst of submachine-gun fire sounded, the Georgian President’s guard did not react to it, and Mikhail Saakashvili remained “relaxed and cheerful.” The report’s authors draw attention to one more strange fact: ahead of the incident the minibus with journalists accompanying the presidents (which was at the end of the column) was allowed to pass forward — as though to deliberately let the media record better what would happen. According to BOR head General Marian Janicki, it contradicts generally accepted rules since there can be no other car at the head of a presidential column. The report’s authors consider that the incident played into Mr. Saakashvili’s hands: on the fifth anniversary of the rose revolution he wanted to distract attention from Georgia’s internal problems and make everyone say that Russia does not fulfill the provisions of the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreement occupying Georgian territories.Nevertheless, South Ossetia’s authorities denied the assumption that it was Georgians that shot. Tskhinvali admitted that its border guards had to use force to prevent the Georgian escort from entering the republic’s territory. Therefore the ABW presumes that Ossetians or Russians could shoot, and the burst of submachine-gun fire could be accidental — although the authors of the report do not regard this version as highly probable.ABW head Kszisztof Bondarik distributed the report’s copies among the sixteen most influential officials in the country, including the president, the prime minister, the heads of security agencies and ministries, as well as the chairpersons of the Seim and the Senate. According to Grzegorz Schetyna, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister (who also received a copy of the document), the investigation may result in the presidential bodyguard chief’s resignation. The Interior Minister believes that the presidential security guard could know about the preparation of the incident back onboard the plane which brought Lech Kaczyński to Tbilisi; however he undertook no measures to ensure adequate protection of the head of state. Moreover, during “the improvised trip” to the border with South Ossetia the BOR was ostensibly accidentally cut off from President Kaczyński by almost three hundred meters.The article by Dziennik has drawn wide response. Yesterday Kommersant received an official letter from the ABW, which reads, “In connection with the article in newspaper Dziennik, where journalists Mikhal Mayevsky and Pavel Reshka used the ABW report’s classified provisions, the Interior Security Agency will demand from the Prosecutor General a full inquiry into their actions, which can be regarded as official secrecy divulgence.”Vladimir Vodo, Warsaw

Medvedev reaches CubaDmitry Medvedev is in Cuba. He's the first Russian president to visit the country in eight years. This is the last stop of Medvedev’s tour of countries in Latin America, aimed at restoring links and boosting trade. The first stop for Medvedev upon arriving in Havana was the José Martí memorial. The Russian president laid wreathes at the Cuban national hero’s monument.Medvedev flew in from Venezuela, where he had taken his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez on a tour of a Russian destroyer.

'The Most Dangerous Woman in the World' ? η απλά ένα ακόμα θύμα ..By Juliane von MittelstaedtAafia Siddiqui was once considered a brilliant scientist. Then the US government called her the new face of al-Qaida -- a Pakistani woman who ranked among America's top terrorism suspects. Now the MIT-educated mother of three is in custody, claiming her long disappearance was a wrongful abduction by the CIA. On July 17, 2008, men coming from evening prayers at the Bazazi Mosque in Ghazni, a provincial capital south of Kabul, paused when they saw a woman outside the building. They formed a circle around the stranger, who was wearing a blue burqa. She was cowering on the ground, with two small bags at her side, holding the hand of a boy of about 12. One of the men, fearing that this peculiar woman could be carrying a bomb under her burqa, called the police.Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (7 Photos)A short time later, more than 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles) away, a telephone rang at the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) in Washington. Someone crossed the name Aafia Siddiqui from a list of suspects and wrote the word "arrested." After two weeks Aafia Siddiqui was flown from the US Air Force's Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan to New York. She was now wearing a tracksuit, had two bullet entry wounds in her abdomen and weighed around 40 kilograms (90 lbs.). Siddiqui is 1.63 meters (5'4") tall.On Aug. 11, Siddiqui appeared at a hearing before a US federal court in Manhattan. She sat in a wheelchair, with a scarf pulled over her head. In October she was taken to the Carswell Psychiatric Center in Fort Worth, Texas for a psychological assessment. Siddiqui is a Pakistani citizen and mother of three children. Born on March 2, 1972, she was the most-wanted woman in the world for four years. The FBI considered her so dangerous that former Attorney General John Ashcroft placed her -- the only woman -- on his "Deadly Seven" list. The American press nicknamed Siddiqui the terrorist organization al-Qaida's "Mata Hari" and its "female genius." She's believed to have raised money for al-Qaida by collecting donations and smuggling diamonds."She is the most important catch in five years," former CIA terrorist hunter John Kiriakou said when she was apprehended. The odd thing about Siddiqui's case is that she has not been charged now with being a collaborator or accomplice in terrorist attacks, but with the attempted murder of US soldiers and FBI agents -- whom she allegedly attacked with a weapon in Afghanistan. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.The charges against Siddiqui are spectacular because she is a woman. Western life is also not alien to her: She comes from an upper middle-class Pakistani family and spent more than 10 years studying at elite universities in the United States. She studied biology on a scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a PhD in neuroscience at Brandeis University, where she was considered an outstanding scientist.Five years ago, Siddiqui disappeared from her home in Karachi, together with her three children, Ahmed, 7, Mariam, 5, and Suleman, 6 months. The two older children are American citizens. Siddiqui claims that Americans abducted her and locked her away in a secret prison, and that she was tortured there. Her children, she says, were taken away, and two of them are still missing.The CIA denies that its agents had anything to do with Siddiqui's disappearance. Michael Scheuer, a member of a unit that pursued al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden from 1996 to 1999, says curtly: "We never arrested or imprisoned a woman. She is a liar." But if it is true that a woman was tortured and disappeared into a secret dungeon, it would be a first in the post-September 11 world -- and yet another example of the decay of standards in America.

The Secret PrisonerOn March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, was arrested in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi -- the biggest catch to date in the battle against al-Qaida. He was interrogated by the CIA at an undisclosed location, where he revealed aspects of the inner world of internal terrorism. A series of arrests began a short time later, and it is believed that Mohammed also mentioned Siddiqui's name. For the CIA, any name Mohammed mentioned was automatically an important al-Qaida terrorist.On that same March 1, Siddiqui sent an email from Karachi to her professor, Robert Sekuler, at Brandeis University outside Boston. She was looking for a job. "I would prefer to work in the United States," she wrote, noting that there were no jobs in Karachi for a woman with her educational background. A few days later, Siddiqui disappeared. Early in the morning on the day of her disappearance, she left her parents' house, together with her three children and not very much luggage. She took a taxi to the airport to catch a morning flight to Islamabad, where she had planned to visit her uncle.Siddiqui says she was kidnapped that day, on her way to the airport. She says her abductors took away Ahmed, Mariam and the baby. The last thing she remembers, she says, was receiving an injection in her arm. She says that when she regained consciousness she was in a prison cell, which she believes was on a military base in Afghanistan, because she heard aircraft taking off and landing. She claims that she was held in solitary confinement for more than five years, and that it was always the same Americans who interrogated her, without masks or uniforms. For days, she says, they would play tape recordings of her children's terrified screams, and she claims that she was forced to write hundreds of pages about the construction of dirty bombs and attacks using viruses. The baby, Suleman, was taken away immediately, she says. They showed her a photograph of Ahmed, the seven-year-old, lying in a pool of blood. The only one of her children they occasionally showed her, she says, was Mariam -- as a vague outline behind a pane of frosted glass.

Could this story be true?Several Pakistani media outlets did report her arrest. A year after her disappearance, Dawn, a daily newspaper normally considered to have good sources, quoted a spokesman from the Pakistani interior ministry saying that Siddiqui was arrested in Karachi and later handed to the Americans. On April 21, 2003, the US television network NBC ran a story about Siddiqui's arrest on the evening news.Pakistani intelligence sources report that Siddiqui was in Pakistani detention until the end of 2003 and that her son Suleman fell ill and died during that time. It is known that terrorism suspects often spend a period of time in the country before being turned over to the Americans. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, there are 52 secret prisons in the country, into which thousands of Pakistanis are believed to have disappeared since the beginning of the war on terrorism.A number of other prisoners held at Bagram Air Base, the site of the most important US detainee camp in Afghanistan, say they heard a woman screaming. Some claim two women were there. The woman was nicknamed the "gray lady of Bagram."Elaine Whitfield Sharp, an attorney who has represented the family since 2003, is convinced that Siddiqui was classified as a high-level prisoner and spent five years in a so-called "black site" in Bagram -- in one of these notorious black holes in the legal system.An Excellent StudentBut who is Aafia Siddiqui? Her sister, Fauzia Siddiqui, pulls out several photo albums that she hopes will help answer this question. The books are filled with images of garden parties, family gatherings and children's birthdays. Aafia, Fauzia's younger sister by five years, is shown holding various pets, including a hamster, a cat, a goat and a lamb.Fauzia Siddiqui, wearing a scarf wrapped loosely around her head, receives guests on the terrace of her house. The cook brings out food; a fountain bubbles in the background. Surrounded by a high wall, the terrace is an oasis in the middle of Karachi, a city of 12 million.The Siddiquis are a model Pakistani family, modern and devout at the same time. The father was a surgeon, the mother is a housewife, and the family has lived in the British city of Manchester and in Zambia. All three children studied abroad. Mohammed, an architect, lives in Houston and Fauzia, a neurologist, worked at one of the best hospitals in Boston and lived in the same house as her sister for several years.She returned to Karachi some time ago and now works at the city's Aga Khan University. She says she would like to establish an institute to train neurologists. Helping the poor, says Fauzia, is a tradition in her family. Her sister Aafia, she says, also believed in helping the poor and was always there for other people. "My sister is innocent. She could never harm anyone. Something is simply not right," she says. "There must have been a mistake."She picks up her photo albums again, holding onto them like a shipwreck victim clinging to a life preserver. Aafia at the piano. Aafia in a student dormitory, together with four Chinese students. A young woman who likes to pose for the camera and loves colorful silk dresses, but rarely wears a headscarf.Can someone like this be "the most dangerous woman in the world"?In Boston, Siddiqui led a life between two countries and between two worlds. They clashed when, after her 1995 graduation, her parents arranged her marriage. The bride had never seen her husband before the wedding. In fact, they married on the telephone -- long-distance between Boston and Karachi.Her husband, Amjad Khan, was an anesthesiologist. His father owned a pharmaceutical factory and the parents considered him a good catch. When he arrived in Boston, he came without presents or flowers. Instead, he could only complain about how much money the family had spent for a small ceremony, a hotel room, and a white silk dress with many pearls for Aafia, which made her look like a princess. It would have been better to donate the money to charity, he said. Weren't there enough needy people in Pakistan? Siddiqui's husband found a job in a Boston hospital, and the couple had two children, Ahmed and Mariam. They fought frequently, and Khan beat his wife and the children. Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Siddiqui flew to Karachi with her children, only to return to Boston a few months later. After six months the couple left the apartment, gave away the furniture and, on June 26, 2002, moved to Pakistan. When Amjad Khan separated from his wife a few weeks later, she was already pregnant with Suleman. Under Islamic law, divorce at that point was not possible. She earned a PhD in neuroscience and wrote her thesis on learning through imitation. Her sister says Siddiqui had wanted to start a pre-school in Boston, where children would be taught using techniques she had studied. This is the one side of Siddiqui, the smart academic and patient wife. But there is another side -- the devout moralist, the energetic fundraiser. As a young biology student she invited non-Muslims to dinner, touted Islam and gave Koran courses for converts. She met several committed Islamists through the Muslim student group at MIT. One was Suheil Laher, the group's imam, an open advocate of Islamization and jihad before Sept. 11. For a short time, Laher was also the head of the Islamic charity Care International, which had nothing to do with the eponymous aid organization. The group, which was believed to have collected funds for jihadist fighters in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Chechnya, has since been disbanded."Sister Aafia was very committed, highly intelligent and extremely concerned about the fate of Muslims worldwide, and she believed that she could make a difference in the world," says Faaruuq. She often came to the "Mosque for the Praising of Allah," a shabby house of prayer in Roxbury, a working-class neighborhood of Boston. She ordered large numbers of English-language Korans and religious literature, stored the boxes at the mosque and later handed out the books in prisons. What exactly happened in those few seconds before she was shot is important, because the indictment brought by the district attorney in New York describes a version of the events that differs considerably from Siddiqui's story. It alleges that she grabbed a US soldier's M4 assault rifle, released the safety catch and fired several shots, but without hitting anyone, all within seconds. One of the soldiers, acting in self-defense, allegedly shot her.A person would have to be familiar with the M4 to know how to release its safety catch. And would a US soldier put down his weapon when a wanted al-Qaida terrorist was sitting in the same room? A psychological assessment of Siddiqui has lain before the judge in New York since early November. The report says she is not competent to stand trial. If the case does go to trial, and if the court takes on the military's version of the indictment, it will not include any mention of Siddiqui's alleged terrorist connections, there would be no need to prove any of the alleged terrorist acts.And then the question of why Aafia Siddiqui, a gifted scientist, was once considered the most dangerous woman in the world, would remain a mystery forever.Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

Πέμπτη, 27 Νοεμβρίου 2008

Western intelligence services have been expecting an al-Qaeda spectacular terrorist attackin this crucial period between the end of President George Bush’s administration and the succession of Barack Obama. Signals intelligence “chatter” in recent weeks indicated that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation might be plotting an attack “to grab the headlines” before Mr Obama takes over in the White House on January 20. British security and intelligence sources said there had been increasing concern, particularly in the United States, that a “terrorist spectacular” was on the cards. The multiple attacks on Westerners in Bombay last night showed all the signs of an al-Qaeda strategy — picking on vulnerable Western “soft targets” but not in a country where there would be maximum security. The attacks on Western targets in Bali in 2002 when al-Qaeda-linked terrorists planted bombs in tourist-favoured restaurants and clubs was another example where the group switched its resources to achieve maximum impact. Counter-terrorist experts last night said that India would have been selected for the latest spectacular “probably because that’s where al-Qaeda has sufficient resources to carry out an attack on this scale. They don’t choose for the sake of it, they look to see where they have the greatest capability and then order an attack,” a counter-terror expert told The Times. The key to this latest attack was the search by the armed terrorists for American and British passport holders. With a reported 40 Britons held hostage, the terrorists have the upper hand. The counter-terrorist sources said targeting Bombay’s most luxurious hotels and a crowded railway station had all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. Bombay has been targeted before when 180 people died during a bomb attack on the railway station in 2006, but that incident was put down to militants, not al-Qaeda, and the Indian government suspected that the attackers had links to Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI. This attack, however, involving the taking of Western hostages made it more likely that the operation’s masterminds were from the core leadership of al-Qaeda, which is based in the lawless tribal regions close to the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. The Americans have been expecting an atrocity partly because of the recent CIA success in eliminating figures in al-Qaeda, using Predator unmanned drones, firing Hellfire missiles at hideouts in the tribal regions of Pakistan. About a dozen al-Qaeda figures have been killed this year. Although an unknown group claimed responsibility last night, the taking of Western hostages and the deliberate seeking out of American and British citizens indicated a “typical al-Qaeda-style activity”, according to security sources. Other sources said India was the home of a complicated network of terrorists and it might be too early to jump to the conclusion that it was an al-Qaeda operation. “It seems to be a highly opportunistic attack,” one source said.The group that claimed to be behind last night’s attacks on Bombay -- the Deccan Mujahideen — has not hitherto been heard of in India, let alone in the outside world. But it could be an offshoot of the Indian Mujahideen, an Islamist group that was also unknown until it said it had caused a series of multiple bomb attacks on Indian cities in the past year.Last night’s attacks also appear to fit into a new campaign to hit busy urban targets, popular with foreigners and wealthy Indians, to cause maximum damage to India’s economy and international reputation. Many of last night’s targets — especially the Taj and Oberoi hotels — are frequented by tourists, diplomats and foreign business people as well as the city’s own wealthy elite. The Taj is one of India’s best-known colonial buildings and is next to the Gateway of India, which was built in 1911 to mark a visit by George V and is one of India’s most popular tourist sites. India has blamed most of the recent terrorist attacks on Islamist militant groups based in Pakistan or Bangladesh which, it says, have links to Pakistan’s intelligence service. Other alleged culprits include Maoist rebels and separatist groups in India’s remote northeast, on the borders of China, Bangladesh and Myanmar. But this year, the Indian Mujahideen has said that it has carried out multiple bomb attacks that have killed more than 130 people in the cities of Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. In September the group threatened to attack Bombay, accusing the city’s Anti-Terrorism Squad of harassing Muslims. It is also reported to have threatened British and US targets in India. Some terrorism experts say the Indian Mujahideen is a front for an older group called the Students Islamic Movement of India, which they say has links to Pakistan. Others decribe it as the first homegrown terrorist group to have emerged from India’s 151 million strong Muslim population. India’s Muslims have long complained of discrimination at the hands of its Hindu majority. Many also object to Indian rule in Kashmir, the Muslim majority region claimed by both india and Pakistan. Al-Qaeda has repeatedly threatened to attack India in revenge for its policies in Kashmir, although Indian security officials maintain that the group has no active presence within the country. The picture has this month been complicated by the arrest of a senior military intelligence officer on suspicion of involvement in a bomb attack by Hindu extremists in western India in September. Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit is the first serving officer in India’s Army — seen as a bastion of secularism since the country won independence in 1947 — to be arrested on terrorism charges.Police are now investigating whether he and other members of Abhinav Bharat (New India), a Hindu nationalist organisation, were behind other recent bomb attacks. Abhinav Bharat’s president is Himani Savarkar, the niece of the Hindu radical who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.

Military links and joint energy ventures have dominated talks between the Russian and Venezuelan leaders in Caracas. Dmitry Medvedev is the first Russian leader to pay an official visit to Venezuela in more than 150 years of relations between the two countries. The sides have agreed to set up a joint bank and abolish the visa regime for travellers between the countries.The Russian leader has also said that Moscow is ready to work more closely with OPEC in the oil markets to ensure stable and fair prices."Russia and Venezuela are two energy giants and they are uniting at present," Chavez commented. "We need to consolidate co-operation with OPEC and also with other states in order to restore oil prices, to bring stability to prices that are affected by the crisis."The Russian leader also stressed that Russia and Venezuela intend to continue to develop bilateral military-technical cooperation."We will continue this co-operation," Medvedev stated. "We have exchanged our ideas with the president (of Venezuela) how and what we will do."On Thursday, both heads of state will meet on board the Russian warship "Peter the Great", which is taking part in joint military exercises with the Venezuelan navy.The arrival of Russian warships in Venezuela has been labelled by some critics as an attempted show of force in America's backyard. Russian officials, however, say the exercise has nothing to do with Washington.

MUMBAI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 80 people were killed and 250 others injured when terror struck the Indian financial capital of Mumbailate on Wednesday night in a coordinated serial explosions and indiscriminate firing rocked eight areas across the city, hospital sources said. Two terrorists were still inside the Oberoi Hotel, one of the two five star hotels under attack, and commando operation was on. Two terrorists were killed at Chaupatti, police said. Terrorists hijacked white police jeep near Metro cinema in South Mumbai. Firing was also reported near Maharashtra state assembly building in South Mumbai. Armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, a couple of terrorists entered the passenger hall of CS Trailway station and opened fire and threw grenades, Mumbai General Railway Police Commissioner A K Sharma said. The terror strike which began at 10:33 p.m. local time at Chhatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST), formerly known as the Victoria Terminus (VT), claimed 10 lives in the premises of the station alone, police said. Three persons were killed in a bomb explosion in a taxi on Mazegaon dockyard road and an equal number were gunned down at TajHotel. The victims were employees of the hotel. The lobby of the Oberoi hotel was on fire and the people inside the hotel have been evacuated, eyewitnesses said. Sharma said 30 persons were injured in the CST attack. Commandos were rushed to the CST which wore a deserted look and train services suspended. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is cutting his Kerala visit and returning to Mumbai. He described the situation in Mumbai as "very serious." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned terror attacks in Mumbai and assured Maharashtra government of all assistance.

Blast rocks Afghan capitalAt least four people have reportedly been killed in a large explosion near the US embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul, witnesses and police say.Officials suspect it was a suicide attack that struck a convoy of foreign troops close to the embassy entrance on Thursday.Reports say the bomber detonated explosives about 200 metres from the heavily guarded entrance to the US compound. The head of criminal investigations of Kabul police said four civilians had been killed in the blast, but Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, Kabul police chief, said only one civilian had been killed and six more wounded when the bomber blew up his Toyota saloon car on a road near the embassy and the health mnistry. US embassy staff were off work for the Thanksgiving public holiday and were unlikely to be out on the roads at the time, an embassy spokesman said. Security in Afghanistan has become a key concern for foreign troops and officials, as the country faces an increasingly resurgent Taliban.

A suspected suicide bomber has struck close to the entrance to the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, witnesses and police say. At least one person, reportedly a civilian, was killed, although one police official said more had died. Reports said the bomber detonated explosives about 200m from the heavily guarded entrance to the US compound. Security in Afghanistan has become a key concern as the country faces an increasingly strong Taleban insurgency. Kabul's police chief, Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, said one person had been killed and six injured. However, the city's head of criminal investigations told reporters that four had died in the bombing. The Associated Press said the US embassy was hosting a Thanksgiving Day event, and Americans and others foreigners were entering the compound at the time of the explosion.

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:24:19 GMTIran's Atomic Energy Organization plans to install 50,000 centrifuges in the country's nuclear facilities in the space of five years. Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told reporters that over 5,000 centrifugesare currently operational in the country. "Given that Iran intends to generate 5,000 megawatt nuclear power, we plan to install 50,000 centrifuges over the next five years," said the Iranian nuclear official, who attended an exhibition of the country's nuclear achievements on Wednesday. Earlier in April, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced plans to install 6,000 new centrifuges in the Natanz nuclear facility by March 2009. Deputy Foreign Minister Ali-Reza Sheikh-Attar later in August said Iran was using 4,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium and planned to install an additional 3,000. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear monitoring agency, which routinely inspects Iran's main enrichment facility at Natanzthrough visits and permanent video surveillance, confirms that Iran has managed to enrich uranium-235 to a level 'less than 5 percent'. The rate is consistent with the developing of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear arms production requires an enrichment level of above 90 percent. Western countries claiming that Iran's enrichment is aimed at building a nuclear weapon have proposed a "freeze-for-freeze," where Iran would suspend uranium enrichment and the sanctions against the country over its nuclear activities would be lifted. Aqazadeh, however, said Iran would not consider suspending uranium enrichment, adding that suspension is not an option. Iran argues that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of which it is a signatory, gives the country the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, adding that nuclear energy is essential for meeting its growing energy demand. Regarding the issue of the "alleged studies", which accuses Iran of pursuing a "green salt project, high explosives testing, and the missile re-entry vehicle project", the IAEA, in its November report, called on Tehran to implement the Additional Protocol to help the agency clarify the nature of its nuclear activities. The Additional Protocol requires member states to provide an expanded declaration of their nuclear activities and grants the agency the right of access to any site in the country. Aqazadeh, however, said, "certain political grounds should be established first before Iran can accept the Additional Protocol."

--------------------------------------------------------Hurriyet - ’Israel may attack Iran via Turkey’WASHINGTON - If Israel were to attack Iran's alleged nuclear weapons facilities, its bomber aircraft would most likely fly through Turkish air space, a prominent neo-conservative U.S. columnist has said. "The Israelis would not attack over Iraq. The way to go is through Turkey," Charles Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist who writes for the Washington Post and some other publications, said on the political panel "Inside Washington" on WJLA TV in Washington DC. The program was broadcast Sunday. He was asked if Israeli aircraft would have to fly through Iraqi air space in the event of an air attack inside Iranian territory. Krauthammer claimed that when Israeli fighter-bomber jets attacked and destroyed a suspected nuclear installation in Syria on Sept. 6 last year, they used Turkish air space on the way. "When Israel attacked the reactor in Syria, it went up the Mediterranean and through Turkish air space," he said.